How to make signage!

I am absolutely obsessed with making these signs.   Pinterest introduced me on some tips and I made my first sign for Thanksgiving.  Give Thanks Psalm 118:1.

I had some leftover wood from cake boards that had been custom trimmed for each cake and paint that was in my stash.

I am going to use this to post scriptures all over the house and add a little spice to each holiday.  Each Wednesday (our trash day) I have been heading out looking for scrap wood to paint on.  Lowe's has scrap pieces of wood located behind the large saw and pieces of fence works great too.

The finished product!

So my next project was for Christmas.  True love was born in a stable! 

The first tutorial that I saw is a good technique for some mediums and others not so much.  I think this technique is best for soft wood and walls.

Print out letters and line up on piece of wood or the wall.  I suggest you tape it but be careful it might take off the paint. Using a ballpoint pen trace outline of letters.  I used this on the Give Thanks sign and it was ridiculously difficult and was thinking this might be my last sign.  The wood was very hard and it took a lot of pressure to get the indention.

Paint the inside of the indent.  This indention acts as a well for the paint.
You will need a good tiny brush- I used both a slanted one and a straight one.  After I had painted this sign I found a super cool website that offers free fonts from handwriting samples.

Fonts for Peas
This is what I used for the next sign.

Technique #2

Transferring ink from paper to wood.

1. You'll start by find an old piece of wood.  The more distressed the better.  You might want to add a little age with a hammer.  My kids loved being involved and hammering away.
2. Choose your paint- I used a spray paint and it did not work well so I switched to a flat paint that was just hanging out in my garage.  I have also found that Lowe's has paint that never got picked up.  They have pre-made samples for sale and they are usually $0.50.  Perfect for these projects!
3. Paint your board.  You can either paint it perfectly or very imperfectly.  While it dries head to your computer.  
4. I used a Word document and a super cool font, added a heart from clipart and printed it off.

 5.  Once I placed the words where I wanted them I printed off my image backwards.  If you go into the properties you click on the box mirror image.  This is what mine looked like.

6.  Turn your piece of paper over so that the ink is face down on your wood, position it so that it's centered and begin brushing the paper with your wet paintbrush.

No matter how much I painted with water or bleach or peroxide or acetone I could not release the ink from my paper.  I do have an inkjet printer but it would not work for me soooo I accidentally stumbled on to a technique.  I had brushed on some acetone and walked away for a few minutes and came back to rub the letters with the of a Sharpie.

And it worked!  Little did I know at the time the paper had dried and that was the trick that worked for me!  Dry in rubbed off with a Sharpie!

7.  Next I painted the letters and it turned out perfect!  I added a little darker brown to the edges, a cross at the bottom and a heart from Clip Art.

8.  Finally, nail or staple twine to the back of your wood to act as a hanger for your new, old-looking sign.